Coal Mines, Tasman Peninsula, Easter 2013

On Easter Saturday we enjoyed a fantastic walk to Shipstern Bluff with our friends.  It turned out to be quite handy having Wanda along at the start of the walk, to provide spare socks and a toilet break for some of us!  Then, at the conclusion of the walk, it was great to able to relax in Wanda's comfortable seats and enjoy chilled Meadowbank champers and some gourmet nibblies.  When our buddies started back to town, Robert and I headed Wanda towards Nubeena.

We had intended to stay overnight at Lime Bay, at the far tip of the Tasman Peninsula.  It was a very pleasant drive through the Peninsula's green farmlands, until we passed into the Lime Bay State Reserve.  Here the gravel road deteriorated into severe corrugations.  It was hair raising progress along the winding road, compounded by the increased number of vehicles on the road for the holiday weekend.  When we finally reached the Lime Bay camping ground, we were gobsmacked to find it chockablock with tents, campers, utes and campfires.  It was too crowded, with small and large family and young adult groups finding themselves to be neighbours.  I felt a faint sense of desperation about the place, and a fair bit of alcohol had probably already been consumed.  We didn't stop, just turned around the driveway and left.  On the road out, we passed a group of young men driving a ute fast, dangerously loaded with old fenceposts (sticking out wide on each side of the tray!) which were clearly intended for a ripper campfire at Lime Bay that night.  We knew we had made the right decision!  Lesson learnt:  avoid popular camping areas in peak tourist periods.

No worries, not far away on the other side of the tip of the peninsula we found the quiet beach, Sloping Main. It was blissfully free of the Easter crowds.  We pulled Wanda slightly off the road, not before some careful checking of how firm the sandy ground was, and relaxed. 

It was a lovely spot.  We had a great view of the beautiful sunset across the bay, and we were completely on our own. To wash off our bushwalk, we tested Wanda's shower out.  It worked really well!  Time for another champers, and dinner - Robert heated up a yummy chicken curry that he had pre-prepared at home.  It was a wild and windy night, but we slept like logs, thanks to the day's bushwalking! 

Next day, after a leisurely start, we headed back to take a look at the Coal Mines historic site.  We had been there some decades before, and since then the area has been recognised as a World Heritage site.  We were very impressed by the work has been done to rehabilitate the bush, to restore buildings which had been hidden away in the bush before, and to design interpretation and short walks around the site. The main loop walk here is now listed as one of the Great Short Walks of Tasmania - there is now an app for the Great Short Walks.

The descriptions provided at the Coal Mines entrance of the various short walks you can do here were a bit confusing.  We ended up doing the main outside loop walk, in an anticlockwise direction, which worked very well. We were glad that we started at the main beginning point:  the interpretation centre provides a clever timeline of the history of the site.

Interpretation centre

From there we headed towards the Settlement (c 1838), the square where the prisoners were accommodated, where there was a hospital and also the prison cells.  

Chapel

 The chapel doubled as the schoolroom for the children on the settlement.

Solitary cells under the hospital

Leaving the Settlement, we walked along the bay toward Plunkett Point.  Hidden in the bush up on the left was the Commissariat's house.

Commissariat's house

At Plunkett Point we saw where the old jetty had been located, and where a fine Commissariat Store had been built in 1842 (unfortunately the stones have since been removed to build a church at Dunalley).  This was where all the coal was loaded onto ships (there is still a fine ground covering of coal) and where supplies for the settlement were received.  It must have been very busy.

We followed the Inclined Plane up the hill.  This was where a clever counterweighted trolley system used the weight of the full trolleys coming down the incline to pull the empty trolleys back up to the top of the main shaft.  This is a steady engineered climb, 10% over 400m(?) and was a nice little walk!

The main shaft, originally around 92 m deep, is still very impressive.   At the edge you can see the original stone seatings of the windlass pulley systems used to lower the men in and to pull up the coal. There is an old steam boiler still here, which used to power the mine's water pump.

The main shaft

The working conditions in the mine were horrendous, men crawling along low shafts, nearly naked because of the heat, and sometime completely naked, and engaging in acts of depravity(!).   

There is another carpark up here, but it is too small for motorhomes to manouvre in.

Continuing around the loop, we came to the site of the signal station, where a semaphore was erected around 1836.  The rest of the loop is downhill.  Soon we came across the military precinct, including the building where the soldiers were accommodated:

Military barracks (1837)

This was quite small, and by 1844 accommodated up to 80 men! The convict gardens are near here.  Not far onwards we found the Senior Military Officer's house, where the OIC of the garrison lived with his family.  This was much more salubrious.  Next we passed the house of the Superintendent, who managed everything except security.

Back down at the Settlement, we discovered the site of the Separate Apartments, which were built (c 1846) to try to combat homosexual activity amongst the prisoners. Under these apartment had been built the 36 Solitary Punishment cells, where prisoners were punished for up to 30 days at a time.  These have been restored immaculately and it is quite an experience being able to enter them and imagine the past inhabitants living here in total darkness.

The whole loop took us 2 hours, allowing plenty of time for exploring the buildings scattered along the way and reading the useful interpretative signs.